Improved cherry-stoner



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THEOPHILUS VAN KANNEL, OF CHESTER, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVED CHERRY-STONER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,434, dated May 5, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, THEoPHILUs VAN KAN- NEL, of Chester, in the county of Randolph and State of Illinois, have invented an Automatic Cherry-Stoner; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is aperspective view of my machine clamped to the edge of a table, and supposed to be in operation. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through the machine in the act of pushing the stone from the cherry. Figs. 3, 4, and 5 represent the three positions of the spring-claw in the operation of stoning the cherries and discharging the same from the machine.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures.

The object of this invention is to stone cherries by machinery adapted to this purpose, which is automatic in its operation, requiring no further manipulation than to put the cherries into a hopper and to keep the machine in motion either by manual labor or by the employment of any other convenient motive power.

Itconsists in arranging within a reciprocating box, which receives the cherries one' at a time and retains them until the stoning-i'ork.

performs its work, a vibrating spring-claw which operates automatically and detaches each cherry from the fork and discharges or thrusts it from the machine at every downward stroke of the sliding box or cherryholder, substantially as will be herein described.

It further consists in a novel device for feeding one cherry at a time from the hopper to the reciprocating box,whereby the machine feeds automatically, and all handling` of the cherries, except to putthem into the hopper, is rendered unnecessary, as will be hereinafter described.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and opera-tion.

This invention is an improvement on the machine which was secured to me by Letters Patent October 14, 1862, in which the cherries were removed `from the stoning-fork barbed needles and discharged from the machine by means of a spring finger-piece,77 which Was operated by the finger of the hand which moved the slide, and was not therefore entirely automatic in its operation. In my presentimprovement this spring tinger-piece,which I now term a claw, operates automatically, as will be seen from the following description.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents an oblong rectangular box consisting of two sides, a bottom and a top and two jaws, A A', which are furnished with a clamping-screw, O, for securing the machine to the edge of a table, shelf, or other similar object in the upright position represented in Fig. l.

D is a conical mouthed hopper, the mouth of which penetrates through the thick side of the box A for feeding cherries to the sliding box F at every downward stroke. The hopper D is made flaring, as shown,`at its outer end, and of suitable capacity to contain any desired number of cherries, and at the contracted mouth of this hopper is a curved rocking feeder, E, consisting of a ridge, a, and an extended tongue portion, b, the extreme outer end of which is bent downward, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, for the purpose of arresting the cherries when the feeder E is depressed and discharging acherry. rEhe spring E keeps this feeder Ein the position shown in Fig. l, when it is not acted upon by the sliding box F, and the ridge a keeps the cherries in the hopper back, and allows only one cherry to be discharged at a time. The reciprocating box F is moved up and down in the boxA by hand, and the two vertical sides of this box A serve as guides for the box F. In the top of the box F is an open chamber, the bottom of which is lined with some suitable metal, which has a concave depression or basin, G, formed in. it for receiving a cherry and presenting it to the fork H, as will be hereinafter described. This basin G has a hole in its bottom for allowing the fork H to push the stone contained in the cherry down through this basin and through the bottom of the machine, as indicated by the small red circles in Figs. 2 and 3 of the drawings. The fork H is made of five (or more or less) needles, secured at their upper ends to the top of the box A and projecting downward in a line coincident with the center of the hole, which is through the basin Gr. It will therefore be seen that when a cherry falls from the hopper D into cherry upon its tongs, when the sliding box F is depressed to receive another cherry and to repeat the operation. The rocking eeder'E,

which dischargesone cherry at a time into the basin G, is operated by the edge of the basins plate when the box F is depressed, and when this box is raised the spring E quick'lythrows the feeder back to its former position.

I is vthe spring-claw, which separates the stoned cherry from the barbed fork H,-and thrusts this cherry out-of ythe machine in the downward stroke of box F. This claw consists of a bifurcated portion, 1'., which embraces the fork H and acts 'upon the cherry, and a tlat. plate, I, which is curved and 'notched on its edges, as shown clearly in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. The top and bottom plates ofthe Abox F are vslotted at j h for the purpose of receiving the plate I, and to allow this plate to ribrate and 'also'to move up and down in them. The curved spring g is fixed at its lower end to the bottom plate of box F and its upper end vpresses against a Wing, g", which projects from one side of the iiat plate I, and tends to torce this plate I forward, as shown in the three sectional Figs. 3, 4, and 5.

The operation of this spring-claw is as follows: When the sliding box F is depressed, the projection 7c strikes the kbottom of box A, and the plate I is pushed upward in lthe position shown in Fig. 5, and the segment i keeps the plate I back in a position .to'allow the clawplate I to embrace the fork H when 'the box F is raised to the position shown in Fig. 3. Now, upon further raising the box F the claw-plate I comes in contact with the top of box A, and the plate I is pushed downward y to the position shown in Figs. '2 and '3, 4in

which position the spring g forces the clawplate I against the fork H, and in the downward stroke of the box F this claw-plate will scrape the stoned cherry from the fork, and as soon as it is released from the fork it will be thrust out of the machine into a bucket or other suitable receptacle, which may be hung upon the hook J. (Shown in Fig. l.) This operation is repeated at every full stroke 'of the box F without any attention further than to move the sliding box F up and down and keep the hopper D supplied with cherries. It will thus be seen that the claw plate is selfacting-t. e., it adjusts itself in the up and downward strokes of the box F to the positions for detaching the stoned cherry from the fork H, and discharging the cherry from the machine, and then assumes a position for allowing a cherry to drop into the basin G, to be stoned in the succeeding upward stroke ot the box F.

In the construction of the oblong frame A, I make one of the upright sides K of sheet metal, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, which side is secured to the box by means of the angular projecting lips n, oneat each corner of the plate K, which lit into grooves made in the corners ot' the end pieces of the box A, and keep the plate K in its place.

When thema-in yportion of the box A is cast in one .piece, as can easily be donc, provision can be made inthe corners lor" the end pieces for'the reception ot' the angular lips n n n n, and by this .means the .plate K can `be secured in its place withoutscrews, and it can also be removed at .pleasure for cleaning the sliding box F and its appendages.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure vby Let-r ters Patent, is-

l. Thecuryed s} iri-ngrocker E, vconstructed and applied to the mouth of the hopper, and operating `in conjunction with the slide F, or its equivalent, for feeding cherries to the machine one at a time, substantially as de` scribed.

Y 2. An automatic device, l If, applied to a sliding box, F., tbr discharging 4the stoned stantially as herein described.

3. An alternately sliding and vibrating claw-plate, I l', substantially as and `for the purposes herein described.

4. A removable plate, K, applied to and forming a part of the box A, substantially as and for the purpose described.

5. The combination of a conical hopper, D, withan automatic feeding device, E, and a slide, F, as and for the .purpose described.

' 6. The perforated reciprocating basin G for receiving and centering the cherries and retaining each cherry 'during the operation of the stoning-fork H, in combination with a machine operating substantially as herein described.

7. Amachine for stonin g cherries operating `substantially as herein described.

Vtness my hand .in the matter. of my application for a patent for machines for seeding cherry-stones.

TH-EOPBILUS VAN KANNEL.

Witnesses:

SAML. B. SnnvAN'r, JN0. C. RrMns.

`cherriesseparately from the machine, sub-` f 

